Blog Post

How Innovation Assists Biopharma Companies In Enhancing Their Supply Chain Processes And Compliance

Adapt Ideations • Jan 03, 2022

For the biopharma ecosystem, efficiency and effective supply chain operations are key.

The biopharma industry has played a crucial role in the manufacturing and distribution of pharmaceuticals.

Every day we see the impacts of innovation and technological advances in every facet of our lives. Innovation has impacted our society in such an extensive manner that often its impact is forgotten. At both the micro and macro scale, individuals, and organisations have reaped the benefits of innovation over the last two decades.

The biopharma industry has played a crucial role in the manufacturing and distribution of medications for many decades. As the industry manufactures many highly sensitive products such as biosimilars and vaccines, they must operate in line with global compliance and auditing processes to ensure the efficacy of all goods distributed.

Efficiency and effective supply chain operations are key.

For the biopharma ecosystem, efficiency and effective supply chain operations are key. Innovation can occur on many levels of the business as we have seen in the pharmaceutical industry in the last decade. Other biopharma companies such as those that produce biosimilars rely on innovation in various sectors of their business operations as well to ensure their competitive advantage in the market. An integral part of any successful business is the monitoring and reporting process that takes place during operations. With the use of asset tracking solutions, the biopharma sector can better safeguard its highly temperature-sensitive assets.

Viability can be hindered at any time during the supply chain.

The biopharma industry is highly profitable due to its global demand and can be applied in a number of ways such as through biosimilars. However, research, time and manufacturing processes that are required to bring a pharmaceutical to the market is extremely expensive. For example, the approximate cost of the research, development and authorisation of a new biotechnology trait or product can cost up to USD $136 million, as reported by Crop Life International.

The risks and costs associated don’t recede once the product has been established, as due to the biological sources mean that their viability can be hindered at any time during the supply chain. Because of this, an important innovation to invest in by biopharma companies is digital monitoring capabilities for their supply chain operations to ensure valuable assets can be monitored remotely at any point in time.

End-to-end visibility is important to any company working towards increasing innovation. Supply chain transparency empowers greater asset visibility, business operational insight and greater logistics efficiency. Through the automation of the supply chain monitoring process, companies involved in the biopharma sector can enhance their compliance processes. This enables greater product quality and assurance as temperature-sensitive products can be continually monitored.

The importance of monitoring and supply chain visibility.

The importance of monitoring and supply chain visibility cannot be overlooked in the biopharma sector. Biosimilars, insulin, and vaccines, and other biopharma products as a whole all pertain biological elements that require stringent monitoring to ensure its efficacy. Companies involved in these sectors face great government pressure to make sure that their logistics process and the biopharma products being transported comply with various regulations and auditing processes.

Asset tracking and monitoring solutions reduce inefficiencies in the supply chain by increased end-to-end visibility. An article written by EY consultancy in 2020 highlighted the imminent implementation of digital monitoring processes across all industries, as a solution to amend the costs created through Covid-19. The article discussed how end-to-end visibility and the subsequent business insights gathered account for 48% of client demands for IoT solutions.

Gaining a significant competitive edge.

With the concerning stringent regulations and the need to comply with them, the automation of the monitoring process can ensure greater compliance. Biopharma companies that take advantage of these innovative technologies gain a significant competitive edge in the current tight market. Greater compliance with regulations also enhances the company’s overall brand image and representation in the greater market.

An automated and digitalised supply chain benefits every touchpoint of the logistics process. For the biopharma industry, the number of touch-points are high therefore increasing supply chain risks throughout. To achieve operational excellence across the entire supply chain, end-to-end visibility is a must for all industries.

Digitalisation can be implemented from the transport of goods to their storage, warehousing, and destination. Biopharma companies and relevant stakeholders will never be left in the dark again, and organisations can reap the benefits of a digitalised supply chain.

The forefront of innovation.

Adapt Ideations is at the forefront of innovation, and we understand the need for supply chain data for high-value and temperature-sensitive assets. Our wide range of digital solutions can alleviate the various challenges that arise at each point of the supply chain. Our solutions cater to many industries and provide valuable data on the temperature, location and environmental conditions that assets may face. The implementation of asset tracking solutions for the biopharma sector will enable greater supply chain intelligence and insights from data to be developed.

Enquire at enquiries@adaptideations.com for further information on our innovative solutions.

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